THE RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14447, 13 February 1909, Page 3

THE RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY.

_ Sin,—The torics of articles now running in .vour valuable paper are occasioning mucji interest anion;,' a. large section of your renders. Argument, however, between Protectant and Roman Catholic seems merely "a bagging o! t.lie qitcKtian," but perhaps the opinion of a lay mind may not be out of place. The following appears in the Daily Mail Year Book for 1909: — "The Catholic Church . . . plays indeed a larg? part in (ho politics of Europe, not. for (.lie moment, a clearly defined, unmistakable part, but. a part mado up of sedulous intrigue and propaganda, designed to obtain for Rome the sympathies of the reactionary elements in all the. countries of Kurope—propaganda carried on positively by means of the e.lcrgy and the clerical press, negatively hy the exercise of personal influences upon the great organs of public opinion, and bypushing clerical adepts to positions of confidence in the neighbourhood of Ministers, wlitore, and thrones" This is the "policy" of the Roman Church the world over; it is a significant factor even in New Zealand affairs, both national and local; it wis its outlet in all the subterranean channel,!, ill tho el lib, workroom, 111 business, and a host of other ways. Politically \vc don't know what goes on behind the scenes, but it is the duty of our Protestant legislators to see that our interests arc conserved. A religion which relic.! upon sedulous intrigue has nothing to recommend it. Tho religion of our Lord, r.s we have been taught, and dating back from time immemorial, combine# peace and goodwill towards men with brotherly love, truthfulness, and sincerity and honesty of purpose, and although raofrt of us come very far short of tin's ideal, that is tho fault of the individual, not the system. Tho present Roman Catliolio agitation for rcli■cZuu JuV-ctii VA'w/3 ro Yi

gloria itifilTiiciiion in schools is but (lie .thin end of tiro wedge for State Aid' to Catholic schools as part of a scheme in view of ,1 return in the dim future to the old days of Papal enpremaey ami clerical dominance, when the people were ignorant and subservient ic compulsion in all things, when "sedition" ami "treason" were rampant, and the rack, stocks, and thumbscrews, etc., were in vogue. But any further concession to the Roman Church as a body must bo strenuously opposed in our own- free country, ami the rights of tho individual protected as at -pruscirt. Our Catholic friends want the Bible in schools: if a plebiscite wore taken on the question tho Bible would soon be installed—not, however, thf-i Bible which tho Roman clergy would desire. But in the interests of tho community a 6 a whole let (be present secular phase of our education continue. Stato aid is out of the question. Finally, it behoves Protestants,- individually and collectively, to rise to .the protection of 'their mm interests, and if it is going to bo war, let it be " war to the knife."— I am, etc., CosuoFOUTAN. [Wo have omitted from the'.above letter a good deal that, is extraneous to the religious education question.—Ed. 0. D. T.]